Thinking about getting a John Vavartos fragrance sometime in the near future.

I am looking for opinions from those well experienced with their fragrances.

Historically, I have enjoyed most of their fragrances on paper. They are modern, masculine, and sexy and somewhat unique.

However, I have heard in some cologne nerd circles their scents have poor sillage and longevity and are all around lower in quality. Can anyone validate/invalidate this?

I have historically been plagued by longevity/sillage issues and have even had projection problems with Kouros, so I imagine if people are only getting 2-3 hours on JV on them I will pretty much get 30 minutes.

Re: Thinking about getting a John Vavartos fragrance sometime in the near future.

I own the original and get around 6 hours. I have oily skin which helps longevity, but that's not usually a factor because I tend to spray on my clothing. I can't say much about Vintage. I've only tried it on paper

“Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving cologne and they go out and smell each other.”
Karl, age 5

Re: Thinking about getting a John Vavartos fragrance sometime in the near future.

Vintage and Original are my JV faves. Both are 4 hour on-skin fragrances for me which stretches a bit longer, say 6 hours or so, if I hit my shirt with it. The way I look at it is pretty simple: They lay down very well on skin and need reapplied at noon.

Re: Thinking about getting a John Vavartos fragrance sometime in the near future.

Varvatos Original is excellent, and I personnaly get reasonable longevity from it...5-6 hours.
Vintage is also quite nice, but has somewhat shorter longevity. Of the 2, I'd definately go for original. I havent tried Artisan or Artisan Black.

Re: Thinking about getting a John Vavartos fragrance sometime in the near future.

I also have some longevity issues with this. It's kind of surprising because when you first put it on, you get the impression that this one is a powerhouse with the burst of dark cherry, leather, and a bit of leafy-woodyness, but after 4 hours or so this one sticks to the skin and is quite faint. However the drydown to a woody vanilla is really quite nice. If this thing projected just a bit more and lasted consistently in the 6-8 hour range without having to press your nose to your skin to get a whiff, it'd be a definite home run.

Re: Thinking about getting a John Vavartos fragrance sometime in the near future.

I've smelt all of them and owned the Original and Artisan.
Artisan was love at first sniff, but the more I used it the more I realized that the drydown reminds me of cat urine.
I eventually sold Artisan and would happily get rid of the Original.

Re: Thinking about getting a John Vavartos fragrance sometime in the near future.

Originally Posted by Celsius32

I've smelt all of them and owned the Original and Artisan.
Artisan was love at first sniff, but the more I used it the more I realized that the drydown reminds me of cat urine.
I eventually sold Artisan and would happily get rid of the Original.

Imo, a very mediocre fragrance house.

I'm curious as to how you felt about the original and what you experience with the sillage/longevity on both was like.